Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

December 9, 2015

Reviewed by Josh Wilson, Systems Librarian, NC Live

Neal Stephenson's take on the consequences of the moon exploding (not a spoiler--it happens in literally the first sentence) employs him in his familiar roles of PopSci explainer and technology worshipper. While his interests seem like they could get him labeled as a writer of "hard" science fiction, a genre that typically elevates technical details over human interest, Stephenson uniquely manages to master both. He's able to create great sci-fi stories, but fills them with casts of likeable, impossibly smart, witty characters. This is a long novel, and the story could have easily been stretched into three books, but the entire arc of disaster aftermath, survival story, and human recovery is covered in one epic volume.